5 Ways to Burn Calories on Your Lunch Break

You want to exercise and get in better shape, but you have a full-time job and several other responsibilities. With a jam-packed schedule and no time to exercise, you’ll just have to give up, right?

Wait! While you might find it impossible to spend two hours per day at the gym, being busy does not equal a free pass to an exercise-free life! You can still exercise, burn some calories, and feel better about yourself in as little as 30 minutes per day.

Try the following exercises on your lunch break, and you can burn 100 calories or more in half an hour.

Vinyasa yoga. Also called “flow yoga”, this is the form of yoga in which you move smoothly and quickly from one pose (asana) to another. A quick search of YouTube on your smartphone can bring up quick, ten-minute routines (or longer, of you prefer).

A short run. When you picture running for exercise, you probably think of your neighbor who gets up at 5 am every morning to run five miles. While that’s admirable, not everyone is interested in doing that. The good news is, you can take a very slow jog on your lunch break, and burn 100 calories or more in just ten minutes or so. Stash a pair of shoes in your office, and map out a one-mile route near the office.

Use your body weight. You can do body-weight exercises pretty much anywhere, even in your office. Put together a routine of push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and lunges. If you don’t have room in your office, head outside to a nearby park. You can take along a jump rope for a little cardio, too.

Hike the stairs. You don’t need the Stair Master at the gym, when the real thing is right there in your office building! Take a walk through the halls, and climb as many flights of stairs as you feel comfortable.

Hit the work gym. If your company has a gym, or there’s one nearby, take advantage of it on your lunch break. As we said, you don’t have to spend hours there in order to see results. Spend 15 minutes on a stationary bike or elliptical, and 15 minutes in the weight room focusing on one area of your body.

Then head back to the office, feeling a little more powerful and dynamic.